Wadekar, Kirmani slam BCCI

June 22, 2005 18:58 IST

Accusing the Board of Control for Cricket in India of lacking transparency, former national selection committee chairmen Ajit Wadekar and Syed Kirmani said there should be little or no interference from it on the selection panel.

Wadekar, also a former India captain, said the selection committee is never given a free hand to pick deserving players to do national duty.

"The selectors should be given a free hand in the process of selection. They should also be paid for the job they are doing. I am sure these measures will help a lot," Wadekar said.

Pointing out that there was interference from the Board president in selection of teams in the past, Wadekar said, "The president should ratify the selected team straightaway. It is a must. There has to be transparency in everything that the Board does.

"I strongly feel that naming of the captain should be left to the selection committee and there should not be any interference from any quarter including the Board or its President, excepting in cases of discipline," said Wadekar, who led the country in 16 out of the 37 Tests he played in an eight-year career.

Former wicketkeeper Kirmani said the selection committee should be nominated by the players.

"The Board has been experimenting many things. I am of the strong view that players should nominate the Selection Committee members," said Kirmani who played 88 Tests and 49 One-Day Internationals from 1975 to 1985.

"The selectors should select the team first, and then out of the team, the captain

should be nominated. Then it will become totally transparent," he said.

Kirmani

also blasted the formation of a special committee by the BCCI which led to the appointment of former Australian captain Greg Chappell as the new coach of the Indian team.

"A

special committee appointing Chappell is all a big gimmick. The team should also have its say in the appointment of the coach. After all, the players are going to work with the coach," he said.

Another

former selection committee chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur also spoke out against the functioning of the Board and said, "Besides lacking in transparency, the Board has appointed a person who was jailed in a dowry case, as a selector.

"The

Board is spending more time now on irrelevant matters in its meeting and otherwise since elections are due in September," he said.

Both

Wadekar and Dungarpur decried the system for the lack of interaction between the senior and junior selection committees.

"There

was no communication at all. We are not even told as to what was happening in the junior committee," Wadekar said.

"It is very important that they should coordinate and work, as otherwise, it will be difficult to get the second line of players to replace players like Sachin (Tendulkar), Sourav (Ganguly)

and few others, who might retire in two or three years," he said.

Dungarpur

also agreed with Wadekar on the issue and said, "It is a tragedy that there had never been any coordination between the two committees."